how long does it take you to go through a gallon of nitro? just curious since people have different times that they go through it.

It's all dependent on motor tune, engine size, weather, individual throttle usage...

I'm sure some guys blow through a gallon in a weekend easily... some people the fuel may go stale before they finish it!

For me, I just got my new motor and have almost finished breaking it in... I'm about a quart, maybe quart and a half into my gallon?

you must go through it fast how do you know when nitro fuel is stale? is there a certain time limit?

Generally fuel don't go bad, keep it in a cool dark place and it will last for years and years.

A gallon can last me several months or a couple days, now that I have an MGT 8.0 I see lots of gallons flying by..

betewwn my jato, rustler and revo
summer i run about everyday for ehhh 2-3 hours each (+ or - ) day and a gallon lasts about a month

lol. guess my nitro is still good since it is in the basement! what about in a buggy that has a 75cc fuel tank running slightly rich? thats what im thinking of gettting and doing.

Tank size has no bearing on how much fuel you use, but with a 75cc tank I'm guessing it's a SB engine so it will last a long time!

Oh, and shake that jug of fuel up good before using it to make sure the oil is mixed up.

okay thanks

A gallon of gas in a 75cc tank should give you 50 tankfuls... and if you run every day for a month...
That's 1.6 tanks per day...

for 2-3 hours you say?

Either you spend 1 3/4 to 2 1/4 hours 'setting up' and repairing things and such... or you have the word's most fuel efficient nitro motor...

Just over a tank and a half a day lasting 2-3 hours you must be doing SOMETHING else lol

lol i was thinking the same thing. When i go out to run, i usually just fill up my 250cc bottle, and thats what i use for the session. Current gallon has lasted me a little over 2 months now.. but thats running maybe once or twice a week at the most.


I gotta figure out the secret to 2 hour run times vs the 7-8 minutes that i get with my RS4, and about the 4 minutes i get with my Bigblock Firestorm.

on the 3.3 i get 12min. run times on the o.s..21tm i get 15min. runs on a 150cc tank. A gallon usually lasts me about 10 hours of run time.

9-12 months for me. My plane will probably drink twice that, because while I may not fly it as often, it does have a much larger engine and spends much more time with the throttle open.

whoa 9-12 months......i hope mine lasts that long. i do not want to spend $30 every month!

It's all in how much you run. I run for about 60-75 minutes in one go using my 500cc fuel bottle, but I only run two or three times a month.

The oil shouldn't ever drop out of solution (stay mixed) unless the methanol soaks up too much moisture. Someone in the Aircraft engine forum did some tests mixing various amounts of water to the fuel and testing it in an engine. Performance didnt change much, but once you get to about 4% water in the fuel, the oil will drop out of solution. Reshaking will mix it in for a short time but one could consider it spoiled at that point. If you have fuel thats sat for a long time, check the bottom of the jug - if there's a "bubble" of liquid on the very bottom of the jug separate from the liquid on "top", its probably moisture laden and the oil dropped out.

At say 1/2 gallon, 4% water would be a little over 2.5oz. Thats a lot of water - probably more than what it could absorb sitting open to the air for a whole day. Keep it tightly capped and out of direct light and it'll last a long time.

On fuel consumption, My Aircraft engines eat more fuel than my car engines but they're also twice the displacement. A gallon lasts me all summer, but now that I mix my own fuel I'll probably use more this summer. I ran 2-3qts in my aircraft engines just for break-in, plus I'll probably burn 1-2 gallons in those this summer. 8oz of 5% fuel lasts about 6-9 minutes in my .65ci airboat whereas about 10-11 minutes on 7.5oz of 20% fuel in my LST2.

I know the oil separating is a wives tale but figured it couldn't hurt lol.
I'm sure oil is heavier than methanol and I'm sure if you gently filled a fuel bottle with a fuel pump or crank by skimming the top you could get lower oil content, it may not seperate, but could settle IMO.


Also you said basement, sitting on concrete is a bad place for fuel because it can promote condensation - (I believe that is the reason for this idea).
A piece of wood under it would help because it's porous and don't get as cold (or transfer as much cold) as the concrete.

well its in my basement, on a plastic shelf. the shelf is on a concrete floor though

unless your fuel is at 100° when you store it in a 65° basement, then you might get some condensation but I've never had it happen after running in 90°+ temps and bringing the cars inside for the night in my Air Conditioned home at 70°F.

Once fuel is mixed at the factory, it will not settle out unless it soaks up too much moisture. Storing in a cool basement in a sealed jug is not going to make it spoil faster whether its on a concrete floor or a piece of wood. I don't see that mattering too much. The key is tightly capping the jug off and keeping it out of the light - nitromethane breaks down under sunlight (and possibly artificial light..?).

Another key is to make sure you don't crack the bottle when you squeeze the extra air out as it empties...I lost a quart of fuel to a leaky bottle that way. Put some in my engine and it decided it didn't want to run very well, had NO power and it didn't want to start very easily, then when I picked the jug up I noticed it pissing on my hand near the crease. [:@]

So easy to start a GREAT DEBATE here at RCU lol!

Why is it that they say to store 1:1 car batteries on wood instead of concrete?
Never figured that one out either..

I go thru many gallons on a year...burnt 1.5 gallons this weekend !

lol. well they should really lower the price of nitro IMO. $30 is pretty expensive.

I paid $42 for one gallon a few weeks ago!

did it have gold flakes in the bottom lol